


Float

by LuneFaitLaFolie



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Coming Out, Happy Ending, Homophobic family, M/M, mention of a suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-24 11:08:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14953541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuneFaitLaFolie/pseuds/LuneFaitLaFolie
Summary: Dex was cold.Fingertips numb where they gripped the bottle of whiskey, the smokey alcohol only warming his throat for seconds before the bone deep chill crept back in.Nursey would say he is emotionally cold too.Would probably then tell him to chill.Then bitterly laugh at the nearly there pun.





	Float

Dex was cold.

Fingertips numb where they gripped the bottle of whiskey, the smokey alcohol only warming his throat for seconds before the bone deep chill crept back in.

Nursey would say he is emotionally cold too.

Would probably then tell him to chill.

Then bitterly laugh at the nearly there pun.

But Nursey wasn’t anywhere near Dex.

Probably never would be again.

Dex wondered what he looked like.

Sitting on the safety railing at the edge of the cliff, an hour’s drive from his parents’ house.

Drinking whiskey straight from the bottle.

Cheeks and nose pink from the cold.

Clothes wet from the rain that only just stopped.

Dex looked down at the water, easily a thirty metre drop away.

He remembers when he was five, walking with his older brother along the exact same safety rail, his brother holding his hand to help him balance.

_“There’s someone floating down there.” Dex said._

_“Huh?” Dex brother replied, picking Dex up off the railing and placing him on the ground, before leaning over to look._

_“Oh fuck.” He said under a breath._

_“You said a bad word!” Dex said, giggling._

_“Come on buddy.” Dex brother said, picking Dex up and carrying him to the car._

_His brother turned the radio on for Dex, before standing outside and calling someone._

_His brother had just told him it would be a while till they went home when two police cars, and an ambulance showed up._

_Dex could hear the police bout out on the water._

_They boy was the same age as his brother. He had jumped that morning._

Dex wondered what someone would think if they drove past.

It looked like he was going to jump.

“You look like you’re going to jump.”

The voice startled Dex, whiskey splashing out of the bottle.

He knew that voice.

“Thought you weren’t coming home this Christmas.” Dex said, looking out over the ocean, wiping the whiskey off his hands onto his soaked through jeans.

“Changed my mind last minute,” Dex felt arms wrap around him, “must say I was shocked to find the house a shit show and everyone yelling about how my favourite little brother had bolted.” Dex’s older brother said.

Belatedly Dex realised he had wrapped a towel around him.

“Yeah well, shit happens.” Dex said, feeling tears come to his eyes again, the thought of the past few hours fresh in his mind.

“Mm, come on kid, its gonna start snowing any second and you’re already at risk of hypothermia, I’ll help you sort out whatever it is that pissed off da-”

“ _No_.” Dex interrupted.

“Hey, I don’t know what happened, mum was crying, dad was just fuming and not saying anything, and Jazzy just said something about you being single, which I don’t really get how you breaking up with your girlfriend would cause all that back there.” His brother said.

“Boyfriend.” Dex mumbled.

“Huh?” His brother said.

“ _Boyfriend_ , not girlfriend,” Dex felt the tears start to run down his face again, “and he broke up with me.”

Dex watched a snowflake float down and land on his jeans.

The only sound he could hear being the ocean, his brother silent behind him.

“You can save whatever it is you plan to call me, I can guarantee you dad already covered it, just go, alrig-” Dex started saying.

“Hey, hey, _hey_ , I’m not judging you kid, I’m just shocked, I didn’t know, you’re my brother and I love you no matter what, why would you think I’d think any differently?” Dex brother asked, wrapping him up in another hug and pulling him back off the rail, maybe thinking that Dex was actually going to jump.

He wasn’t.

Dex turned.

“ _Why would I think that_? Did you _see_ , mum and dad?” Dex said, still crying.

“Yeah, fair point.

So, what happened?” He asked.

“We got into a fight, mainly my fear of telling everyone here about me, and me and him, but it came across super bad, like I was ashamed of him, which I could _never_ be, and he said he deserved better, which he does,” Dex was near sobbing at this point, “and then he found out you’re a cop, and we had argued about police early that day, because he hates cops, and I didn’t even think, I just said not all of them are bad, and so he was mad about that too, and I just thought, you know what, I’m gonna go home and tell everyone I’m gay, for me, and for him, and I did, and it was so much worse that I thought it would be, and so I came here, and I tried calling him and he won’t answer.”

Dex’s brother held him close as Dex sobbed into his shoulder.

They walked back to where their cars were parked, Dex’s beat up red truck and his brother’s patrol car.

“You got a change of clothes?” His brother asked.

“Yeah.” Dex said, before walking over to the side of his car and changing, not worrying about anyone seeing at 11:30 at night on a country road.

“I’m guessing from the amount of whiskey still in that bottle that you are under the limit?” His brother asked.

“ _Yeah_.”

“So, you managed to get Nursey huh?” His brother asked.

“Yep, lost him _too._ ” Dex said, shutting his car door.

“I reckon you can get him back,” his brother said, walking over to his own car, “I’ll even help.”

“Yeah, and how are you gonna help?” Dex asked.

“I got transferred, Abby and I are moving down to about ten minutes from you, I’m going there now, Abby is going to get there in a week, she’s finalising the last stuff back at our old place. And Jazzy is going to come live with us, I didn’t like the idea of no one being near her.” His brother explained.

Dex got into his car, door open to yell at his brother, “I take it Jazzy is coming down with Abby then?”

Just like that his car door opened, and his little sister, with blanket and teddy bear climbed in.

“Hey munchkin.”

“Hi Dexy.” His sister said.

“Did you get to nap in the patrol car?” Dex asked, closing his door and putting his seat belt on, and waiting for his sister to do the same, before pulling out onto the road behind his brother.

“Yeah, but I like driving with you better, you have better music and squishy seats.” She said.

Ten minutes into the drive and she was out like a light.

An hour in and they pulled into a 24 hour gas station, having a toilet stop and grabbing some energy drinks to get them through the drive. Jazzy got a chocolate milk.

He sent Nursey a text.

_‘I told my family I’m gay. And that you are my boyfriend.’_

_‘were*’_

_‘you’re right, you do deserve better’_

_‘I just hope that I can be better enough for you’_

They drove the last few hours.

They pulled up to the house and said their goodbyes, before Jazzy climbed into the patrol car, and Dex was alone once again.

Slightly less cold, significantly drier, and just as emotional.

Dex noticed the light coming from him and Nursey’s room, and odd fact considering no one from the SMH were staying home during the holidays.

Dex quietly walked up to the door, careful on the ice and thin layer of snow that was on the ground.

Dex watched a snowflake float down onto his hand.

He unlocked the door carefully, cautious of whoever was breaking in.

He opened their bedroom door.

No one was breaking in.

Nursey was asleep in their bed.

On Dex’s side.

Dex went downstairs.

He got a fire going in the lounge, and plugged his phone in to charge, it died a few minutes after Dex had texted Nursey.

Dex focused on warming himself up.

His phone started ringing.

_No wait._

It was text after text coming in.

‘ _what’_

_‘WAIT WHAT’_

_‘wait no I was going to call you and say I was overacting but I was on a plane’_

_‘baby’_

_‘omg’_

_‘I’m proud of you’_

_‘I hope you did it for you though not because I said shit’_

_‘I’m at the haus, I came back early, my moms couldn’t deal with my sad ass and said I needed to come back and fix everything with you’_

_‘I love you’_

_‘if you don’t want to stay there you can come back here’_

_‘holy shit’_

_‘I love you’_

Dex was so engrossed in reading the texts from Nursey, and from feeling a weight fall of his chest, he didn’t hear the footsteps.

_“Baby?”_

Standing in the hallway bleary eyed, was one Derek Nurse.

Standing there in fuzzy socks and a pair of Dex’s sweats, and one of Dex’s hoodies.

Dex dropped his phone and stood up.

“Hi baby.”

And just like that he had his arms full.

Dex would be more concerned about how hard he was hugging Nursey if he wasn’t concerned for his own ribs safety.

“I love you so much I’m so sorry” Nursey said, kissing Dex before he could say anything.

They spent the night, hugging, kissing and talking, before falling asleep on the couch, pulled closer to the fire to stay warm.

He felt like he was floating on cloud nine.

Looks like Dex wouldn’t need his brothers help after all.


End file.
